Ivanishvili amassed his wealth amid the privatization rush following the collapse of the Soviet Union. He's got some serious ties to Russia—ties that drew fire from his opponent Mikheil Saakashvili and conservative commentators in the American press.

Still there's a lot more to the man who is about to lead perhaps America's strongest ally in the former Soviet Union. His $6 billion net worth is half of Georgia's GDP and from ski resorts to hotels to public parks, he's touched just about every part of the state.

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The youngest of five, he was born in 1956 in the unpaved village of Chorvila.

Georgia in the winter.
Flickr/DDohler

His father shoveled coal in a manganese factory and despite walking to school across frozen fields in second-hand boots with no socks, Ivanishvili finished near the top of his class in high school.

In 1982, he went to Moscow where he earned his PhD in economics and met his first business partner.

Moscow State University
Wikimedia Commons

While studying at Moscow State University of Railway Engineering, Ivanishvili went into business with Vitaly Malkin. They set up shop in a three-bedroom apartment from which they sold imported computers, phones and video recorders during the demand boom that came with perestroika.

By 1990, they made $100,000 and use the money to oven a bank—Rossiky Kredit (RK)—in the corner of a kindergarten.

In 1991, he married the doctor's daughter from the next village over.

He capitalized on his knowledge of precious metals in growing his new bank. Six years after its founding, RK became one of the biggest banks in Russia.

RK cozied up to the state and became the authorized institution for a number of government organizations. Yet the money started really rolling in when RK started buying mines and factories that were being put up for privatization.

Ivanishvili would by shares of, say, the Stolinsky Mining and Processing Plant in 1991 for $150,000 and sell them 15 years later for $500 million.

When Ivanishili decided to run, he said he was sacrificing his reclusive nature for the greater good of the country.

Due to his international lifestyle, he wasn't technically a Georgian citizen when he won the election.

AP Photo

Ivanishvili was stripped of Georgian citizenship last year because he held a French passport, violating a law against having multiple nationality, but parliament passed a law allowing him to run in the election as a European Union citizen.

His fierce opponent, Mikheil Saakashvili, will continue to serve as Georgia's president for the next year.

Mikheil Saakhasvili
AP Photo/Richard Drew

When Saakashvili conceded defeat, it marked the first peaceful democratic transition of power in any former Soviet Republic. However, Saakhasvili will remain president for another year, serving alongside Ivanishvili (likely, prime minister) in a situation that's already tense.

Saakashvili says he has Western interests at heart.

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Aides of American ambassador Richard Norland say their boss confers with Ivanishvili twice a day. Georgia's likely new prime minister has stated that his country will continue to pursue a bid to enter NATO, despite the risk of irritating Russia.